December 20, 2021

With the world all but coming to an end—COVID more disruptive than the usual natural disaster—does it matter what Donald Trump has to say, especially about Jews?

Our former president, the Crown Prince of Inappropriate Behavior, let loose on a topic that by all accounts should be his strength. As with the events of January 6, the man is usually speaking when he should remain quiet, and silent when his voice is most needed.

After two failed impeachment trials, ongoing congressional investigations, prosecutions involving his business affairs, and the mothballing of his beloved Twitter account, is it time to finally cancel Donald Trump?

After two failed impeachment trials, ongoing congressional investigations, prosecutions involving his business affairs, and the mothballing of his beloved Twitter account, is it time to finally cancel Donald Trump?

While speaking with an Israeli journalist from Axios, Trump trafficked in antisemitic tropes and reinforced pernicious stereotypes. Had he directed his remarks at people of color instead of Jews, it would have been a much bigger story.

First, he established his bona fides to speak about the Chosen People. He could have invoked his Jewish grandchildren, but instead he said that his father, Fred Trump, “was very close with many Jewish people,” naturally because of their presence in New York’s real estate industry.

He then lamented that American Jews once had “a great love of Israel, [but], I must be honest. It’s a very dangerous thing that’s happening. People in this country that are Jewish no longer love Israel … [E]vangelical Christians love Israel more than the Jews in this country … I’ve said this for a long time—the Jewish people in the United States either don’t like Israel or don’t care about Israel.”

He made similar statements in 2019, charging Jewish Democrats with “disloyalty” to Israel.

These remarks raise all kinds of blue and white flags featuring a Star of David. The implication is that Jews have dual loyalties—to the United States and to Israel. Italian- and Irish-Americans, with their own emotional ties to Italy and Ireland, respectively, never have their patriotism questioned in this way.

Trump didn’t stop there. He delved into the canard of Jewish political and cultural power, opining that Israel once possessed “absolute power over Congress. [T]oday I think it’s the exact opposite.” He wondered why there are so many Democratic Jewish voters given how poorly Israel has been treated by Democratic leaders.

In 2019, speaking before donors to the Republican Jewish Coalition, Trump reportedly said, “The Democrats hate Jewish people.” He added: “You’re not gonna support me because I don’t want your money. You want to control your politicians.” Also, in 2019, he told the Israeli American Council that he anticipates receiving their support because Jews are focused primarily on wealth. During the 2016 presidential election, he accused Hillary Clinton of meeting with international bankers to enrich global financial centers at America’s expense.

One must cringingly ask: Who is his audience for such hackneyed bigotry?

And there’s more. American Jews are too obtuse to look out for their own self-interest. He told Axios, “The New York Times hates Israel. Hates ’em! And they’re Jewish people that run the New York Times.”

If he means what he says, then Jews owe their power to financial acumen and avarice, exercise control over American politics and culture, and are conflicted in their national and tribal loyalties.

Pretty odious, even for a president who ran on a platform light on policy but abundant in shock.

Apparently, losing the election didn’t lead to enlightenment. He’s still working the same material. No one has been cancelled more often, and yet he’s still here, somehow shielded from exile, gaining new adherents each day.

These offenses will go unpunished. Cancellation is not a Jewish prerogative. Jews remain the one American minority deemed overprivileged. Antisemitism, incongruously, does not intersect with other oppressions. It doesn’t even count as oppression.

Jews remain the one American minority deemed overprivileged. Antisemitism, incongruously, does not intersect with other oppressions. It doesn’t even count as oppression.

That should come as a surprise. New York City just released its official 2021 hate crime statistics. And there were no surprises. Hate crimes doubled this year. The largest percentage were committed against Jews. Hate crimes against the Black community actually declined.

But in our cancel culture, antisemites pay no price. Louis Farrakhan has lost no luster among Black celebrities. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has yet to hear an antisemitic trope she wouldn’t repeat in a stump speech. Mel Gibson is still making movies. Attacks against Jews in the United States in 2021 and 2019 registered no outrage, no social ostracism, at all.

Trump’s recent comments will be well received, even by his enemies. The bigger problem, however, is that some of what he said is actually, troublingly true. No, Jews do not exert magical clout over American cultural centers and seats of power. And even staunch Israel-supporters know they are citizens of the United States first. Loyalties are not dual but double, and surely not in conflict.

But Trump is on target in dissecting the hearts and minds of far too many American Jews. (And the New York Times does exhibit bias against Israel, despite its Jewish founder and having employed hundreds of Jewish writers and editors.)

Many Jews would elbow their way to the front of any Black Lives Matter protest, but wouldn’t bring up the rear in Fifth Avenue’s annual Celebrate Israel Parade. Many sit slack-jawed at dinner parties where Israel is libeled as a settler-colonial enterprise, an apartheid state, the most immaculate of ethnic cleansers. Some Jews bash Israel with the best of them. Others are without basic knowledge on how to rebut such slanders. And they don’t care to know. To voice any dissent might get them disinvited from future parties.

How can Trump possibly be right in his reading of American Jewry? His niece, Mary Trump, reported that both her grandfather, Fred, and his favorite son, Donald, were old-line Jew-haters.

Perhaps it’s true. Of course, his antisemitism might be accidental. After all, he has demonstrated so little self-control over any of his other impulses. Regardless, as antisemites go, this one may be an idiot savant on the matter of Israel.

Iran continues to threaten annihilation of the Jewish state. Jews are beaten on the streets of Times Square, and in Paris, London, Berlin and Stockholm.

Yet, Hanukkah candles were lit in Dubai this year. Expect to see a Menorah aflame in Sudan next. Israeli tourists are vacationing in Morocco. Arabs from Bahrain are enjoying the beaches of Tel Aviv. Arab financial centers are investing in Israeli start-ups.

He may have made a mess of his four years in the White House, but Trump left the Middle East largely better—all the more impressive if he’s an actual antisemite.

Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro College, where he directs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society. He is the legal analyst for CBS News Radio. His most recent book is titled “Saving Free Speech … From Itself.”